


My Biggest Cheerleaders…

by pixiealtaira



Series: 30 Days of Lists challenge [11]
Category: Glee
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-30
Updated: 2020-03-30
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:34:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23387449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pixiealtaira/pseuds/pixiealtaira
Summary: Prompt 11.	My Biggest Cheerleaders…It's the support of others that keep things going right.
Series: 30 Days of Lists challenge [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1679446
Comments: 2
Kudos: 28





	My Biggest Cheerleaders…

Kurt smiled as he looked around the loft and considered how wrong his life could be and how right it felt at the moment.

He could have given into Rachel and stayed to help her reestablish the Glee club at McKinley, but after seeing Blaine and Dave he decided to not stay in Lima. He almost did. The deal at the retirement home had fallen through, and Rachel had begged him to help her. He had bombed his first attempts at dating in NYC after Blaine and his break-up and his therapist had convinced him it was entirely his fault anyway and no one showed at their planned meet-up. Running home sounded promising…at least his dad loved him, right? Rachel’s offer and getting Blaine back had sounded good (it probably hadn’t helped that he also hadn’t really slept in a month…Blaine had made him get rid of Bruce the moment he found him.) However, the call to the Dean at NYADA to set up helping Rachel as his work-study option wasn’t nearly as promising as he’d hoped. (He’d been not so gently reminded he was in the musical theater program, so unless they were doing a musical he should probably reconsider…or focus on setting up a good drama department instead.) The call the next day with four work-study options in New York at theaters producing musicals, two of which also had small salaries attached and then the reality of living at home made him reconsider his options and he decided to go back to New York. (Carole telling him his therapist was full of crap helped as well.)

He moved back into the loft, thankful he hadn’t given it up completely. He and the friend of Dani’s who was going to sublet it for half a year realized in the month he’d given her to find a new place that they got on fabulously and life was much better with a roommate. Nora stopped looking for someplace else and Kurt started making friends not linked to anyone in his past…and letting himself do so. Nora also found him a new therapist.

Through Nora, Dani came back into his life…and Elliot. They restarted the band. They had to replace several band members, but it was good in the long run. Tori, who tried out as a back-up singer (don’t you ever leave me singing alone…just don’t) and as their bass player (who also played the upright bass and cello) worked at Vogue.com and through her Isabelle came waltzing back into his life as well…waving her wand with a part time writing job and her personal assistant for evenings when needed and he was free. Jolene, her current assistant was a young mom whose husband had taken a job in France for a year and therefore had no babysitter past school hours.

Kurt interviewed for all four options he was told about for his work-study period. He chose working as the paid everything boy for a musical that was just being put together in an off Broadway venue. It held the option of him continuing on past the semester. Sure, he was a basic errand boy, but the company was very serious in furthering the education of those who were doing work study with them. Kurt sat in on meetings where the writers and producers tightened the script and music and meetings about arranging workshops for the actors and meetings for set designing workshops and costume designing workshops. He watched the casting process. The producer and writer and songwriter all asked why he thought they worked things the way they did and made sure he understood the hows and whys and ways things worked. They had him write up papers about what he learned, which the producer, who’d once taught for a while, graded. They allowed him to sit in on the different workshops.

Kurt loved it.

After the third week, they brought in the costume designer and her crew. One of the girls from Adam’s Apples worked with her. Cat wasn’t one of the ones Adam had been really close with, but still. It was awkward for the day…and driving Kurt batty. He pulled her aside and took her to dinner to try to fix it.

“He pretty much loved you, you know.” She told him. “And none of us could understand what happened.”

Kurt sighed. “All I heard from pretty much a week after Blaine and I broke up was how much Blaine was hurting and how crushed he was and how I could fix it if I would just behave. Even when I started to hang with Adam, my roommates, although they would be for it one moment it seemed, would both constantly tell me how much Blaine and I should be together and how much Blaine and I were perfect together and how much Blaine loved me and how much better Blaine was …for me, then me, all together. I went home and all I heard was what Blaine had done for my family while dad was having his treatments. From everyone…my step-mom, old friends, the kid who lived at the house while finishing school there, my dad even. They made it all seem like such a big help and big deal. I later learned it wasn’t much. He drove my dad to chemo two times when Carole had to work and Finn couldn’t. He did grocery shopping with Sam a few times, using the money from the grocery jar at the house, not his own. He would stop and bring Carole coffee when picking up Sam from school. But they all made it seem so much more at the time.”

“And I was a wreck at that time. It was near spring break for us, so I went home half a week early. I had worked until the wee hours of the mornings for a week and half to get everything done so I could leave early…so I was pretty sleep deprived. I was stressed…very badly stressed. We were going to see if my dad’s cancer was gone…that was what I was home for. I was going to spend time with my dad and my step-brother and a few old friends who also had break and were in town. Blaine was everywhere. My step-brother was busy and I spent less than a day with him, my step-mother was singing Blaine’s praises but didn’t even notice I was such a nervous wreck that I counted out sugar packs, blinks in the mirror, and pretty much ever thing else. My dad was certain I’d regressed back to the OCD levels I experienced after my mom died and figured Blaine would help…because Blaine told my dad we were getting back together and my dad listened to him more than me.”

“I was supposed to go the day after their glee club regionals. I let myself be talked into staying a few more days. Finn would be home more, Dad wanted more time with me, and surely I wanted to see more friends while down there. Sunday, I saw my step-brother again and listened to him for hours bemoan his estrangement from Miss Berry. I listened to Puck wax on about Quinn. I heard all about how they should have seized the day and how high school romances were the true loves if one was brave enough to hold onto them. I had watched Mr. Shue, our glee teacher, finally get married to his OCD wife and heard all about how someone like that had to grasp onto whoever could handle that type of behavior. I heard my dad go on and on about how well Blaine handled my OCD behavior ...even though he’d never seen Blaine do so. Monday, I called Adam and he had just found out he hadn’t made it into the master’s program he wanted and would be leaving, at least for the summer. We weren’t exclusive yet and the last I heard before we got cut off was him saying he though we should probably…and I didn’t know what else was supposed to go there. I couldn’t get back in touch with him and since I know it was my end that was cut off…because I was cut off by Blaine and Sam goofing off and knocking my phone out of my hand and onto the floor…I thought he was avoiding talking to me.”

“He dropped his phone in a sink full of dishes.” Cat said.

“I know…but I didn’t know then and I couldn’t get hold of any off the other Apples I had numbers for. I only had two other numbers. If I’d only bothered to get more than that before I had left, or just stuck to my guns or something….”

“Why didn’t you?”

“Tuesday, Rachel called and started in on how much Santana, our other roommate, missed Brittany…her ex. And how much Rachel missed Finn and how much Blaine and I were perfect and should be together. How even Adam knew that. I thought he’d come over and got all his stuff or something. Of course at the time Rachel and Santana were drunk, but they weren’t to the slurred speech state and I didn’t realize it. She and Santana emailed and messaged me every single photo if Blaine and I together they had…all day long, one or two at a time. She also emailed me the anti-cheating contract. I gave up. Wednesday, I asked Blaine to date again, like everyone wanted. He talked me into staying out the rest of the week. Friday my dad drove me to a ‘surprise proposal’, dressed in an outfit Blaine had picked out and my dad told me all about how he regretted time he could have spent with my dead mother if they’d just gotten together earlier. Blaine had four show choirs, a marching band, and all my old friends there…except for my step-brother and Puck. There were rose petals falling from the ceiling. He asked with everyone congregated together to watch. There was no option to say no without probably being lynched.”

“You’re kidding?”

“Nope. I said something affirmative, I can’t remember what. I only remember buzzing in my head and shortness of breath. Blaine kissed me, I remember that, but then he went off to accept congratulations from everyone around and I sat on a stair trying not to pass out. No one told me congratulations, the few who talked to me only spoke about how lucky I was and how wonderful Blaine was. I shrugged it off because I was only there another half hour anyways. I didn’t see Blaine again the whole time. My dad drove me from there to the airport, with a ring on my finger. Rachel had told everyone here before I even landed in New York. She made a special effort to text Adam personally over Facebook. According to a few who saw the text; she seemed to be gloating to them. Apparently not only those on the Lima side thought so. I met Adam for lunch very publically at a restaurant we’d never eaten at so no memories would be tarnished and apologized. I was seen by Rachel and one of her NYADA ducklings. I was shamed for daring to speak to him…by Rachel and her toadies, by Santana, by Blaine and every single person in Lima Blaine knew. All before lunch was even done. It was actually the first I’d heard from Blaine since I’d headed back to New York. We decided it was better for us to not see each other at all. All I heard about for the next week was prom and who my new fiancé was going with and how he was going to be Prom King and how wonderful it was to be able to go and have fun and not worry about me trying to make him dance with me the whole time. I took off my ring and was going to call and break it off Monday. And instead got a call Finn had died. Yeah, I was not going to rock any boats after that. Why bother? I’d messed up everything with Adam, it wasn’t hurting me. I figured Blaine would remember we were an us again, he’d just been distracted. I kept waiting.”

“Did he?” Cat asked.

“Not really. I honestly am not sure he knows how to think about someone other than himself. He was at NYADA last year, he flunked out…got too distracted with June and when that didn’t immediately pan out he decided to plan our wedding and got mad when I wasn’t on board with it. We had been unable to live together when he first got to NYC, we were just starting to attempt it again, and I was not ready for wedding planning. We were arguing all the time and after a huge row we broke up. I was almost stupid and tried to chase after him again, but I came back here instead. It had been about four months, I thought to try dating again and it bombed so I immediately thought, as per my therapist insisted at the time, that I must still be in love with Blaine. However, my new roommate and the therapist she found me laughed when I said that and advised I take some time off from dating for a while longer. Learn to be Kurt.”

“Sounds like sound advice to me. I’m sorry I was cold earlier. I didn’t realize anything else that was going on in your life was happening.” Cat said.

“I didn’t talk about it…any of it. Adam knew I wasn’t over the teenage fantasy of first love…I’m not sure though he even knew why we’d been broken up in the first place. We were building a relationship and talking and communicating more than I ever had with Blaine…ever…but I ruined it before we had a chance to be a solid relationship yet.”

“You haven’t forgiven yourself have you?” Cat asked.

“I don’t think I ever will.” Kurt replied.

Kurt hadn’t thought much about the conversation with Cat other than they were fine working together after that dinner. Then a few weeks later Joey called and invited Kurt to sing with the Apples, a mash-up Kurt had spoken of wanting to do when he was an Apple. Kurt accepted so long as Joey made sure before he even showed up that there would be no hard feelings. 

He was greeted much the same as when he first showed up. Welcomed. 

It was a blast. Kurt had forgotten how fun singing with a big group could be. By the end of the second week, Kurt was back in the Apples and the Apples had met Kurt’s band. Everyone meshed. Kurt made friends amongst the Apples in a way he hadn’t before.

At Christmas, Kurt invited Carole and Burt to NYC, and they came. His dad dragged his heels at first, insisting Kurt wasn’t nearly as happy in NYC as he’d have been in Lima helping Rachel resurrect the glee club. Kurt laughed and told his dad he was happier where he was at. He knew everyone there was sore that he hadn’t gone to the Brittana wedding, but the play had been doing the first attempts at staging and Kurt decided he wasn’t missing learning about how to do that….besides his invitation was a demand he be there and that he show up ready to grovel. It hadn’t set well with Kurt. Kurt threw a huge party and invited Isabelle and told her he would love if it ended up like their first Thanksgiving. Kurt watched his dad and Carole as people came in and out of the loft…people from Vogue, friends of Isabelle’s, Apples and others from NYADA, Nora’s friends, Elliot and Dani and other band members and their friends, people from work…even the producer and writer showed up for a few. There was singing and dancing and fabulous clothing and laughter and Kurt was happy.

His dad didn’t try to convince him he’d be happier in Lima after that. 

Rachel was back at NYADA when the new semester started. Kurt saw her two or three times. He was ahead of her in the courses now and she was a bit irate that no one would allow her to waive those courses she quit and missed. She was furious she had to redo dance courses and take courses she’d talked her way out of the first time around. She was being a brat about him to anyone who would listen, but it wasn’t getting her far. She would not speak to him though.

It was good.

It was now Valentine’s Day and he’d once again opened his loft for a huge party. He was still working with the company he’d done his work study with, still Mr. Errand Boy. His NYADA classes were going well and he loved them and he worked for Isabelle on weekends and evenings when she needed him. He’d had two pieces published in the print version of Vogue in January. Neither was over a paragraph, but still. His loft was again full of Apples and band members and friends and whoever wanted to stop by…

And Adam. 

Adam was at NYU getting a Master’s Degree. He and Elliot had hit it off the moment they met. Kurt worried they’d start dating for a few days, but both just laughed at him when Dani caught onto his trepidations about it. Dani and Adam became best of friends within a week. Nora adored him. 

It was awkward for about an hour, the first time Kurt ran into Adam…at work of all places. Then it wasn’t. They weren’t dating. Kurt still wasn’t going to even try for a little while longer. Adam was actually dating a friend of the head costume designer for the play…not very seriously, but not entirely casually. Patrick was every bit as hot as Adam. Kurt once teased him that he ought to have been a model. Instead he wrote jingles and designed ads…and made a good deal of money doing so.

Kurt had thought it would be bad and weird and…it wasn’t. They talked it out. They were friends.

Laughter rang through the loft as Adam, his boyfriend and Elliot started singing “Cowgirl Shake it for Me” and some other country song Kurt did not recognize mashed together. Dani and Nora and Dani’s current girl were whopping off to the side. Tori was yelling that they didn’t have the right twang.

Adam caught Kurt’s eye and waved him over to join them. Isabelle and one of her drag queen friends were walking over as well. Kurt laughed and ran over to join them in their second round of the song, dragging Tori and Cat with him, everyone cheering as he joined.

“Shake it, Kurt!” Elliot yelled.

“I’ve seen you do it before…in fact Santana once showed me some very entertaining videos online.” Adam added.

“Did she show you the Cheerleading Nationals of 2010?” Dani asked.

“Wait? What?” Tori replied.

“Someone find a laptop when we’re done with this,” Isabelle said. “I once went looking and everyone is in for a treat. He’s adorable.”

Kurt laughed. The thought didn’t even embarrass him like it would have just a year before…and he was sure it would still if these weren’t his friends. Because he knew none of those in the loft would hold anything they saw over him or torment him with it or use it against him.

“Fine…however, if you want me to sing this mash-up we’d better start now.” Kurt said. “And someone video tape this…It will be the only time you ever hear me say bedonkadonk.”

It could have been so wrong.


End file.
